Threaded conversion
Most audio batch conversion programs work in a sequential manner. That is, they convert files one at a time. aumpel can work sequentially, but has the ability to convert multiple files at once, using threads.
What's the advantage? Using threads, you are evenly employing all the processors (or processor cores) on a system. This means that one processor is not being overworked while another is standing idle.
For example, here's the processor usage while aumpel converts multiple files at full speed on a dual core computer:
You can see that both processors are being utilitized nearly the same amount.
Not all PCs are blessed with multiple processors or cores, however. And some computers have more processors/cores than others. aumpel is flexible. You can make it convert sequentially (simply set the files to convert to "1"), and it will not generate the overhead created by multiple file conversion. aumpel lets you determine the best fit for your computer by allowing you to select how many files to convert at once, up to 8 at a time.
Even though aumpel uses the processors efficiently, disk drives may still prove to be a bottleneck. A fast enough drive or drive configuration (e.g. RAID) may be fast enough to handle multiple files being converted at once. However, if there is a bottleneck, it will be with the computer's hard drive. With aumpel, you can put files on multiple hard drives, and convert them all at once. If it detects that the input files come from multiple drives, it will automatically "shuffle" them so that they are staggered, making the chances higher that files being converted together are being read and written from separate drives. In testing, this has shaved considerable time from the conversion.